Police drone grounded

Published: Friday, 19 February 2010
THOUGH the Merseyside Police drone, featured in narrowboatworld, caught a car thief on a canal towpath, it has been grounded.

The embarrassed police force have discovered that the military type flying drone is illegal!  It needs a licence from the Civil Aviation Authority  which the force had not obtained.

All unmanned aircraft now have to be licenced to conduct aerial surveillance work after the law changed at the start of the year, needing permission to fly within 160ft of people or within 500ft of buildings.

A Merseyside Police spokesman stated:

"Since the force has known of the change in regulations all Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) flights have been suspended and will remain so until the appropriate licence has been granted."

The Civil Aviation Authority is investigating the use of the drone by Merseyside Police, and the force had stopped all drone operations.

The car thief was tracked down with the camera after he ran off from a stolen car, being tracked by the drone's thermal imaging system to the towpath of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.